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Chapter 16: Distributions of Residence Times for Chemical Reactors
Side Note: Medicinal Uses of RTD
The application of RTD analysis in bio medical engineering is being used at an increasing rate. For example Professor Bob Langer's1 group at MIT used RTD analysis for a novel Taylor-Couette flow device for blood detoxification while Lee et al2 used an RTD analysis to study arterial blood flow in the eye. In this later study sodium fluorescence was injected into the anti-cubical vein. The cumulative distribution function F(t) is shown schematically in Figure 13.5.N-1. Figure 13.5N-2 shows laser ophthalmoscope image after injection of the sodium fluorescence. The mean residence time can be calculated for each artery to estimate the mean circulation time (ca. 2.85 seconds). Changes in the retinal blood flow may provide important decision making information for sickle cell disease and retinitis pigmentosa.
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Figure 13.5.N-1 Cumulative RTD function for arterial blood flow in the eye. Courtesy of Med. Eng. Phys.2 |
Figure 13.5.N-2 Image of eye after tracer injection. Courtesy of Med. Eng. Phys.2 |
